Bam Adebayo is Playing the Best Basketball of His Career for the 7-4 Heat

After a raucous night of in-season tournament play, an innumerable amount of thought and takes circulate; are the Clippers finding something with the Harden pick and roll? Does Denver's bench have a chance to be better than last year's group? Is Tyrese Haliburton the reincarnation of Steve Nash?

With a crazy slate, jam packed full of meaningful banked wins for the regular season, I just keep coming back to Bam Adebayo.

Stats provide a data point, trends start to plot trajectories, and consistent production is king. 11 games in for the Miami Heat, Adebayo is HERE.

Adebayo is averaging a career high 23.2 points per game, up 3 points per game from last season while playing the same minutes load. He has the highest usage of his career (28.3%) and he's getting to the line at his highest rate since his first All-Star campaign in 2020 (48.6% free throw rate).

This isn't just early season play juiced by a few outbursts; Bam's lowest scoring game was 18 in a game against the Wizards that he didn't play a full 30 minutes. He's scored 20 or more in 8 of the ten games he's played.

That stats are indicative, but the on-court presence are fully telling of Adebayo's assertiveness.

Part of what's made Bam so incredible, but also frustrating at times in the past few years, is how wired he is to play as the hub of an offense. Running hand-offs, hitting cutters with crisp passes, and screening like a mad man are what made Bam a secondary star early in his career. Through no fault of his own though, Miami has needed him to be more consistently assertive at times, and this season, he's taken that and run with it in a way that feels replicable.

Where Bam would pause and hesitate when a DHO got denied last season and he'd look to rotate or swing the ball after a half second, Bam is more decisive this year. On top of that, he's unleashed his mid-range at a clip he hasn't been willing to in the past.

So often in Miami's offense, when initial actions die, something effective and impactful needs to happen quickly to take advantage of the defense. Pockets are regularly available with how opposing teams play the Heat, with the middle of the floor often a sort of no man's land when trying to defend a team that plays so much out of post splits and Princeton concepts.

The mid-range is often miscast in discourse, looked at as a scourge in some ways.

For Bam, it's the next evolution for him ascending to his next plane of stardom. Ripping into and attacking those pockets given to him are a necessity to keep Miami's offense afloat. 67% of Bam's shots are coming from the mid-range, per Cleaning the Glass. Pairing together that aggression and the efficacy of his in-between game, shooting 50.8% from 10-16 (38.1% of his total FGA come from here), and he meets the threshold where he has to be guarded.

When force and efficiency meet, the mid-range matters!

Miami's offense as a whole is still in a tough spot; they're in the bottom third of offensive efficiency, in due part to injuries, integrating new pieces, and an ever tweaking rotation as the Heat find a groove. But, that's sort of the point, as Miami is closer to average in halfcourt efficiency because of Jimmy Butler and Bam's exploits. This team is 7-4 right now where it might've been below .500 at points in the past few seasons.

While no one would or should question Butler's ability, it has unequivocally felt like Bam has taken the reins to a degree this season, shouldering much of the load for Miami. Butler was tremendous closing down the stretch in the fourth against Charlotte last night, but again, with Bam's play, they're in different spots than they may have been. It may seem like a hyperbolic take, but it's just been a gut feeling in watching and thinking over the course of the first month.

Making himself the biggest threat that he's ever been on the offensive end in his career, anchoring a top defense with standout Defensive Player of the Year level play, and driving Miami towards home court advantage early on, Bam Adebayo is in the midst of the best stretch of his career. Will he end up winning MVP? Probably not, but his play thus far has undoubtedly warranted early season down ballot consideration. He's on the short list.

Accolades aside, Bam is here, and he's making his presence felt exactly like the Miami Heat need.